The Lonely Child
by tiamat100
Summary: A murder. A secret Organisation. A family seperated and torn apart. A kidnapping. And a young girl flying alone on a late night plane for the millionth time. Meet Isobel. She seems normal, but if you think that, you couldn't be more wrong.
1. Chapter 1

Isobel sat on a plane reading her book

_**Dreams…**_

Isobel sat on a plane reading her book. Next to her sat two young girls.

They were whispering to each other as the plane took off. Finally the one sitting in the window seat called to her "Excuse me?"

She looked round. The girl looked shy and rather embarrassed. "Would you-Would you like a lollipop?" she asked, offering a bag of Isobel's favourite's.

Isobel smiled at the girl. "No thanks." She told her. The girls looked a bit upset, and Isobel wandered why they had offered her a lollipop. Then came a voice from in front of them.

"Ella, Nicole, why don't you offer that girl next to you a lollipop?"

"We already have, mum!" the two girls stage-whispered simultaneously.

Then another voice interrupted. The voice of an old lady. "Eh, what's that?"

As the two girls, Ella and Nicole, annoyed their sister by putting puppets in her face, Isobel listened to the conversation of the two adults.

"Well mum, there's a girl next to Ella and Nicole who's travelling on her own and I told them to offer her a lollipop, which they apparently have already done. I don't know if she accepted or not, but I do know they asked." Said the first voice, Ella's and Nicole's mum.

Isobel tuned out. These people's pity was not something she needed.

She turned her attention instead to the cleverly disguised book in front of her. Because, contrary to what the other passengers and the air stewardesses would have thought, It was not a book. It was a communicator and information pack about her current mission.

Because, I ask you now, reader, why would you think a girl of about eleven or twelve would be travelling alone late at night? The official story, given to the stewardesses, was that she had two parents who were constantly travelling, and she was forced to split her time between the two of them. She was home-schooled, supposedly by both her parents, but in reality by a man of no relation whatsoever to her.

She didn't need the concern and anxiety felt on her behalf by the stewardesses, and she'd seen enough hardship to cope without their kindness. But nonetheless, Isobel was grateful.

And she didn't realise just how safe her dangerous life had started to feel while she was in the air as she dropped her communicator and slipped into a dream…

"_Run, Isobel! Hide! Or it'll kill you too!" a woman's voice yelled at me. I was crying "No, mummy! I won't leave you!"_

_The woman who I called my mother was visibly distraught as a pepper pot shape approached. Before I could prevent her, she pushed my tiny body under the bed. _

_I heard a fearsome cry of "Exterminate!" and my mothers dying scream before giving in to the tears. _

_The monster turned towards me, towards the bed. "Identify yourself!" It shrieked at me. _

_I crawled further backwards as the metal monster approached me. Just as it was aiming It's weapon, I leapt out from under the bed, my tiny five year old self, and raced to the door. How I got there before the Monster fired I'll never know, but I managed it and raced out the front door. _

_The Monster didn't some after me. It obviously didn't think I was as important. It had murdered my parents and had probably decided that It had no need of following me as its mission was complete. _

_But still I ran. I ran, on and on, until I eventually had to stop. I wandered in the forest seemingly endlessly, desperate for food and water._

_I was just about to give in and just let myself die when I heard a voice and saw a blurry face swim into my sight. _

"_It's alright sweetie, we'll get you somewhere safe." A kind voice reassured me._

_The poured water into my mouth and after a few moments I managed to grasp the bottle myself, drinking it down quickly. _

_But as I finished I felt nausea rise within me. I turned to avoid the kind people and threw up all over the grass, before everything faded to black. _

_The scene changed and I was sitting with the same lady who had rescued me. _

"_Now, what's your name?" she asked kindly. My lip quivered as tears threatened to overwhelm me._

"_Isobel Foreman." I whisper._

_Then another voice came, saying "Wake up, Isobel! Do you want a sandwich?" and the scene gradually disappeared. _

Isobel blinked open her eyes to see a Stewardess smiling down at her. "Hello again, Isobel-Now, Which sandwich would you like? Tuna, mushroom or tomato?" the stewardess asked, smiling down at her.

Isobel felt herself answering in a daze, not knowing what she was saying- as became clear when she found herself with Mushroom, which she hated-, feeling shaken.

She hadn't dreamt of her past in a long, long time.


	2. Chapter 2

Arrival

_**Arrival**_

Isobel sat, shaken, for the remainder of her flight back to England. She hadn't dreamt of her past for years. She sat reading her information pack, which to the two girls next to her would look like a book written in German.

She had a mission in England, and then she'd be driven home once it was complete.

But to her the place she lived wasn't home. She'd never felt truly at home since her parents were murdered. The home she'd lived in for a few years had been a near substitute, but the place she lived now would never feel like her home, not matter how long she lived there. She was sure of that.

She sneaked a glance at the two, innocent girls beside her. Could it be that these girls had a connection to her? Could it be because of them that her past had returned once more to haunt her?

She quickly dismissed the idea. It had been a long time since she was as innocent as the two girls beside her, and every part of her from then was gone. That part of her had been murdered at the same time her parents were killed.

For the remainder of the journey she didn't dare let down her guard, not even for a moment. She read through her information again and again. Her job was to investigate a strange woman names Sarah Jane Smith, who seemed to attract trouble. She also had a son who was a genius, and Isobel highly doubted he was human.

But, truth be told, Isobel would have rather simply let Sarah Jane get up to whatever she pleased. She hadn't done any harm yet.

But when Torchwood gave her a mission, Isobel knew she had to perform it as well as she could.

She knew they could have gotten her home to the Joneses long ago, but she also knew she, being who she was, had no chance of surviving without their protection. And they couldn't give her that protection if she returned to the Joneses.

It wasn't their fault. She knew that they needed her, and they knew they had to protect her, and she knew that she would be hunted down by the many enemies she'd made over the past year if she did leave.

Isobel was only a young girl, but she had the fate of Earth, and possibly even the universe, upon her young shoulders.

She read through the information once more.

Sarah Jane Smith lived in Banaman Road. One of her neighbours, who she seemed to spend a lot of time with, was called Maria Jackson, daughter of Alan Jackson and Chrissie Jackson, who were divorced. She had been single and childless for a long time before, at about the same time Maria had moved to the Road, she suddenly adopted a son called Luke Smith. But Torchwood had looked deep into the files and discovered, after lengthy searching, that Luke Smith hadn't existed before Sarah Jane had adopted him. She also seemed to spend a lot of time with a friend of Maria's and Luke's called Clyde.

A short while after Luke was adopted by Sarah Jane, there were reports of a boy named Ashley who was his exact double. Sarah Jane then was forced to give Luke, who was a child genius, to Ashley's parents due to Maria's mother reporting her.

Then it turned out that they'd faked Ashley being their child, and then they mysteriously disappeared and Sarah Jane got her son back.

And on top of that was her past with UNIT and the fact that she seemed to be the Go to human for aliens everywhere.

Definitely very suspicious.

Isobel hardly noticed as they started to land, knowing she may have to wait in her seat a long time.

However, this time there was a new annoyance. The two girls next to her had a granny who was in a wheelchair.

This meant that they had to get off last too. Isobel rolled her eyes. Just what she needed.

"Isobel, lets go get your stuff ready and take you to whoever's meeting you."

The next few hours of getting out of the airport passed fairly quickly. Isobel got her luggage, met the Torchwood contact meeting her and got into a taxi to Banaman Road.

And Isobel snapped out of her thoughts when she arrived, just in time to spot a large, red, spiky alien threatening Sarah Jane Smith in her front garden.

Isobel acted on the instinct she'd been taught to recognise after spending the latter part of her childhood in a top secret organisation such as Torchwood-She pulled out a gun.

Sarah Jane saw her.

"Oh great, I'm being threatened by a giant alien, Maria isn't allowed to help save the world after 5 O'clock until her test scores go up, and there is a child pointing a gun at me! All I have to say is: the real world had better start treating me with some respect, or I'll stop saving it ever week!" Sarah Jane cried out in exasperation.

Isobel paused. "That's a quote from Charmed." She noted.

"Yes it is. Now are you going to just stand there, or are you going to help me out?"


End file.
